Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/288

 HERBART

248

HERBART

Bibl. (Montb^liard, 1894-99), s. vv. Armoiries, BUison; Bat- TANDIER, Ann. Pont. Calh. (ParLs, 18S9), 269-31.':i; (190(1), 389-93; (1902), 366-84; (1904), 127.

A. C. Fox-Davibs.

Herbart and Herbartianism, — The widespread and

increasing influence of Herbart and his disciples in the work of education makes a brief treatment of this German philosopher and educationist desirable in the present work. John Frederick Herbart, b. at Oldenburg, 1776; d. at Gottingen, 1841. He was the son of a lawyer whose wife, a woman of brilliant parts, was subsequently divorced from her husband. The child was delicate and was at first educated by an able tutor under the supervision of his mother. He exhibited extraordinary precocity, was of quick intelli- gence and retentive memory, and showed remarkalile aptitude for mathematics, physical science and music. He began logic at eleven and metaphysics at twelve; he went to the gymnasium of his native town at thirteen and, after a distinguished course there, passed to the University of Jena at the age of eighteen to study law. This subject he neglected, becoming an enthusiastic student of philosophy under Fichte, then at the zenith of his fame. Herbart, however, was of too critical a mind to be content with Fichte's Idealism, and at the age of twenty began the elaboration of a philosophic system of his own. In 1S07, after three years, his course still incomjjlete, he left the Univer- sity to become a private tutor in the family of a German nobleman. The education of the three sons aged 14, 10, and S was entirely entrusted to Herliart on conilition that he should write a lengthy report l)y letter to the father every two months. This was Herliart's first and most important experience in the work of teaching. Five of the letters which remain are amongst his most interesting writings and contain some of his main educational ideas. During this period he visited Pestalozzi at Burgdorf . In 1799 he resigned his tutorships, devoted himself for a couple of years to the study of philosophy and wrote some small works on education including appreciations of Pesta- lozzi's writings. In 1802 he went to Gottingen, obtained his degree of doctor and began lecturing on philosophy and pedagogics at the modest stipend of $225 per annum. Between 1802 and 1808 he pub- lished several pedagogic works, including the "Aes- thetic Revelation of the World and the Science of Education " ; also works on metaphysics and logic. In 1809 he was appointed to the chair at Konigsberg formerly occupied by Kant, where he lectured on philosophy and pedagogics for over twenty years. His chief interest, however, was in the latter subject. With the approval of the Minister of Education he founded a pedagogic seminary having a practising school attached. In this he himself taught for an hour daily. In 1809 he married an Englishwoman. During the remainder of his life he lectured to large audiences, and published sundry works on education. He returned to profess at Gottingen in 183;i, where he laboured till his death in 1841.

General Philosophical Vietrs. — Though Herbart was an able and original thinker his influence in philosophy has not been considerable. In metaphysics his sci- entific temper led him to advocate a system of Realism in opposition to the Idealism then in vogue. In ethics he approximates towards Kant's teaching in some respects; but instead of Kant's Categorical Imperative he puts forward five Practical or Jloral Ideas — the Ideas of Inner Freedom, Perfection, Benevolence, Right, and Equity— as the frame-woik of his moral system. In psychology he rejected the doctrine, generally accepted from Aristotle to Kant, of a soul endowed with certain native faculties or powers. For this he substitutes a simple soul with presentations, .states, or impressions. As, however, m his view, we know nothing about this simple soul in itself, after it has once been postulated as the arena

for the opeiations of the presentations, the soul be- comes, for all practical purposes, merely the series or mass of these presentations, whilst their permuta- tions, interactions, and combinations constitute the entire fibre of our mental life. Herbart strove to apply mathematics to the working of these presenta- tions and to establish quantitative laws describing their mutual interactions. This attempt had in itself no success, but indirectly stimulated the subse- quent allied movement in favour of experimental measurement of mental states carried on by Fechner, Weber, Wundt, and others. There is remarkable similarity between Herbart and the English Associ- tionist school in their common mechanical view of the nature of mental life, though Herbart is spiritualistic whilst they tend towards Materialism.

Herbart s main interest in philosophy, however, is the problem of Education — its object, its method, its possibilities. Education is in fact both the starting point and the goal of all his philosophical inquiries. The end of education is, he holds, determined by ethics. It is the formation of nol)le, cultivated, moral character. Morality is goodness of will. Moral con- duct cannot be embraced, as Kant imagined, under one principle. It is best included under the five practical ideas. Ideal character is to be attained by "many-sided interest ". The full <levelopmcnt of the individual, the realization of all his capabilities should be then the constant aim of the process of education. The main foundations on which Herbart's whole theory of education rests are his doctrines of apperception and interest. Apperception, with Herljart, means the act or process of assimilating, appropriating, and identifying an object, impression or itlea. All progress in knowledge after the first percipient act is a process of apperception, and the character of each new perception is determined by those which have gone before. The first sensation or impression affords no knowledge, but results in a presentation which persists in existence gradually sinking dowai below the surface of consciousness. This original presentation existing in the sub-con- scious state of our mental life will be partially wakened and called up into conscious activity by the next impression. Thus aroused it modifies the reception of the latter and partially fuses with it. Again this pair of presentations or this compound state similarly sinking down into subconscious life still remains ready to appropriate the next impression assimihiting it in hke fashion. But the method of the reception and the character of the appropriation is constantly varying with the increasing collection of presenta- tions or ideas already in the mind. The facility and completeness with which each fresh idea is assim- ilated is determined by what has gone before. Here- in, according to the Hcrbartian school, lies the im- portance of directing the process of apperception by judicious selection of the materials which are to con- stitute the experience of the child. As the mind, in this view, is simply built up entirely out of the ideas which it has received, the kinds of ideas presented to it and the order in which they come are of the utmost moment in the work of etlucation. Ideas or objects are assimilable or apperccivable when partially fa- miliar; a totally foreign idea has no friends already lodged in the mind to welcome it.

In the pleasure of the process of apperception lies the great fact of interest. Interest depends on what is already in the mind. It is the factor of most vital importance in education — and in moral life, as a whole. Interest and knowledge react on each other. Interest stimulates voluntary attention and sus- tains involuntary. It thus lies at the root of the mental activity of observation. It determines what we shall see and also what we shall desire and will. With Herbart interest is not simply a means: it is an end in itself. "Many-sided interest" free.=i from